THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS, THE CHRIST AND THE SON OF GOD, ACCORDING TO JOHN. Manfred Diefenbach
Читать онлайн книгу.
corrects547 (“not … but” in v. 32c, d – cf. v. 27a, b) them: Not Moses548 had given (Perfect tense in Greek “dédoken” in v. 32c) the “bread from Heaven” but God, His heavenly Father, is (Present tense in Greek “dídosɩn” [= gives] in v. 32d) the source of it,
v. 33: of – eternal in verses 40c, 47b, 54b, 68c – “life”. It “comes down”549 (vv. 33a, 38a, 41d, 42e, 50b, 51b, 58b) like God’s gift/giving from Heaven on earth/world (in Greek “kósmos”). The receivers of this message are “all” of the “world” (vv. 33, 51g) in a universal550 sense.
+ Fourth Dialogue between the Crowd and Jesus (vv. 34–40)
v. 34: As the request of the Samaritan woman in John 4:15 “Lord, give me this water …”, the Jewish people also request: “Lord551, [ ] give us (this) bread ( ) [ ]”.
v. 35: JESUS himself appears as “the giver of ‘bread’” with His self-revelation: “I am” (cf. Exodus 3:14 – note vv. 35b, 48 as the first of seven I-am-metaphors in John 8:12; 10:7, 9, 11, 14; 11:25–26; 14:6; 15:1, 5) the/this “Bread of” – note verse 40: “eternal, everlasting” – “Life” (vv. 35b, 41c, 48, 51c). Jesus is both the (personified552) “giver” (more: the “life-giver”!) with the help of a self-prediction and the “gift” itself in God’s name/order. According to (eschatological553) Jewish tradition/viewpoint, the Messiah/Christ will enter Jerusalem554 (cf. vv. 14, 44–45) like the new Elijah through the so-called “Golden Gate” of the old city of Jerusalem. In our context Jesus, the Christ, is the Messiah in the form of the “Bread of Life” which can satisfy both (cf. Isaiah 49:10; 55:1; Matthew 5:6) “physical” (cf. John 6:1–15) and “spiritual” “hunger” (in Greek “peɩnáo”) and “thirst” (in Greek “dɩpsáo” in 4:13–15; 7:37 [; 19:28]) – note the parallel structure of verse 35c, d. The prerequisite is to “come to” Him (vv. 35c, 37a, b – cf. Jesus Sirach 24:9, 19–21) respectively to “believe in” Him555 (vv. 35d, 36c, 40b). The receiver of this “Bread of Life” could be everyone556 – then and now.
v. 36: Jesus continues with the saying in a negative way: “You have seen” (in Greek “horáo”) and “/yet do/ not557 believe”558 (cf. vv. 30d, 64b and John 4:48; 15:24) in contrast to His sayings in verse 40b (“everyone who looks on” [in Greek “theoréo”] “the Son … believes in Him …”) and in 20:29: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”.
v. 37: However, He emphasizes in a positive way: “Whoever comes to” (vv. 35c, 37a, b, 44a, 65c) Jesus s/he “will never be cast out559” in the eschatological/soteriological sense because of His divine relationship with His “FATHER” (vv. 37a, 40a) who “gives” (present tense) Him “all” (vv. 37a, 39b, 65d and John 10:29; 17:2, 6–9, 12, 24; 18:9 – cf. Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:16–20).
v. 38: Jesus underlines with the help of a correction560 (“n o t … b u t”) that His earthly works in word and deed are not an end in itself so that He “has come down from Heaven” (cf. vv. 33a, 41d, 42e, 50b, 51b, 58b)
“n o t /to/ do (my) /own/ will561 ( )
b u t the will of Him who sent me” (in Greek “pempo” in vv. 38c, 39a, 44b and in John 4:34; 5:30 – Mark 14:36; Matthew 26:39, 42; Luke 22:42).
v. 39: Verses 39–40 as quintessence of verses 26/34–40 have the parallels in words and in structure as follows:
“This … is the will /of/” (vv. 39a1, 40a1) “Him who sent me” (vv. 38c, 39a and John 5:23–24; 12:45)
“that all who has given me” (vv. 37a, 39b)
“/that/ ( ) I should lose (n o thing) of them
b u t562 I raise [it] up [ ] on the last day” (vv. 39c, 40c, 44c, 54c).
v. 40: “This … is the will /of/” (vv. 39a1, 40a1) “(my) FATHER ( )
that all who looks on the Son and believes in Him” (vv. 30c, 36c, 40b)
“should have eternal life” (cf., for example, 5:24–25),
“and [I]” = (egó) “raise (them) up ( ) [ ]” (cf. 11:24) “on the last day” (vv. 39c, 40c, 44c, 54c and 12:48).
- Part II: “The Jews” and Jesus (vv. 41–59563)
+ The Dialogue between “the Jews” and Jesus (vv. 41–51564)
In the first part (cf. vv. 26–40) the dialogue between the crowd and Jesus was an open, positive discussion. Verses 32–51 give a development of the biblical quotation of verse 31 in the form of a Jewish “midrash”, a special homiletic technique. Therefore the atmosphere changed565 to a negative attitude because of their religious, biblical disagreement with regard to Jesus’ viewpoint: “I am the Bread from Heaven!” (vv. 38a, 41c). In the eyes of “the Jews”, only the heavenly God, the Creator of all can be a “life-giver”. The so-called “Jews” (vv. 41a–42e, 52a–b – the Torah-oriented Jewish people including their leadership) and also some disciples of Jesus (cf. vv. 60–61, 64, 66) interrupt566 and contradict Jesus’ self-revelation.
v. 41: The protest of the Jewish people in the form of murmuring567 (in Greek “goggúzo” in vv. 41a, 43b, 61b and 7:32 – note also the Jewish tradition in Exodus 15:24; 16:2, 7, 12; 17:3) as a result of His divine self-revelation (“I am …”) that He is “the Bread of Life” (v. 35b) which “came down from Heaven” (vv. 33a, 41d, 50b, 51b, 58b).
v. 42: In their eyes, Jesus, the Jew, is only an ordinary man568 (cf. John 3:4, 9) and a Galilean569 (cf. 7:27, 41, 52) carpenter’s son (cf. John 1:45; Mark 6:3; Matthew 13:55), the “son of Joseph”570 (cf. John 1:45; [Matthew 1:16, 18–20, 24; 2:13, 19;] Luke [1:27; 2:4, 16, 33, 43;] 3:23; 4:22) and His “mother”571 (v. 42c and Mark 3:31–32; Matthew 12:46–47; Luke 8:19–20) who grew up in Nazareth. Therefore they rejected Jesus, and also in rejecting Him, rejected eternal life. Before their discussion about His identity, the crowd (of 5,000) emphasizes that He “is indeed the ‘prophet’” (v. 14c).
v. 43: Jesus interrupts their “murmuring” in taking up the argument with His viewpoint in the form of a speech for His defence (cf. vv. 44a–46c, 47a–51g).
v. 44: God is the centre, reason – or in the words of the translation of the Greek text: “attractive power, pull” like the “gravitation(al pull)” or the “appeal” of a person (cf. John 12:32 [; 21:6, 11]) – for the relationship between Jesus and the believers who believe in Jesus, but we do not believe in Him but in God (cf. 12:44). In the context of the monotheistic discussion we have to read this passage according to “John” that God “the Father” is the first ONE who “sent” (in Greek “pempo”572 in vv. 38c, 39a, 44b) Jesus (in the world [in Greek “kósmos”]). Jesus is like His messenger for us – on earth and in Heaven “on the last day” (vv. 39c, 40c, 44c, 54c and 12:48) – our resurrection (cf. v. 54c and 11:24).
v. 45: The Fourth Evangelist comments with